Speakers & Panellists

Chair's welcome and Logistics UK introduction

Phil Roe, President, Logistics UK

Phil joined Logistics UK as President in April 2022 after 5 years as a non-executive Director. Prior to joining he was a board Director at DHL Supply Chain which was the culmination of his 35 year career with DHL and XPO. He is also a non-executive Director and trustee at the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

Phil has substantial experience of supply chain leadership across multiple customers, sectors and geographies, with 35 years’ experience in a variety of senior leadership roles within operations and functional areas. These include Managing Director, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Customer Officer and Strategy Director.

Keynote - Economic landscape and the 2024 Budget

Louise Hellem, Chief Economist, CBI

Louise is the Chief Economist at the CBI. She and her team provide business leaders with advice on the UK economic outlook and global risks and leads in setting out the business view on economic policy in discussions with senior politicians and policymakers. Louise also oversees the CBI’s economic consultancy business CBI Economics. Previously, Louise was the Director of Economic Policy at the CBI. Prior to that, Louise spent 13 years at HM Treasury as a member of the Government Economic Service, where she led on a number of different analytical and policy issues, including assessing the economic and distributional impacts of policy measures at fiscal events.

Keynote - Mergers and acquisitions in logistics as a litmus test for the state of the sector

Philip Bird, Corporate Finance Partner, RPG Crouch Chapman

Philip Bird is RPGCC’s Corporate Finance Partner and head of logistics. Philip has over 25 years’ experience in corporate finance in the following areas:

Mergers & Acquisitions advice.
Debt & equity raising.
Exit planning.
General strategic advice to companies.
Private equity and management team advice.

Philip has particular experience in the transport and logistics sector. He has worked closely with a wide range of clients including major listed global logistics groups as well as privately held companies in the development and execution of their corporate strategies.

Panel session - Is technology key to increased productivity?

Chair: Ben Garratt, Deputy Director - Public Affairs, Logistics UK

Ben Garratt joined Logistics UK in early 2023 to form and lead the Public Affairs team. He engages with politicians and other policy makers on the role logistics plays underpinning the economy, and what the business group's members need to deliver now and for the future. With a background in public affairs and communications in passenger transport and energy, and prior to that, Middle East politics, Garratt is also the policy lead for Innovation at Logistics UK, and a member of the Freight Innovation Cluster Board.

Simon Evans, Finance Director UK&I, XPO Logistics

Simon leads the finance team for XPO Logistics in the UK and Ireland as part of the company’s global logistics network. Mr. Evans joined XPO in September 2012 following six years at Serco, where he led the finance department for Technology Services Projects and the Private Sector. Simon is an ACA-qualified senior business partner, who influences the direction of the business with integrity and strength to question decisions to both enhance business performance and mitigate risk. In his spare time, Simon likes to keep active and is a keen cyclist and runner.

Max Rouse, Strategic Advisor, Infrastructure and Government Strategy, KPMG

Andrew Tilley, Sales Director, Renault Truck Financial Services

Panel session - Aligning your ESG strategy with decarbonisation goals and energy choices

Chair: Michelle Gardner, Deputy Director - Policy, Logistics UK

Michelle Gardner was appointed Deputy Director of Policy for Logistics UK in October 2022, having previously joined as Head of Public Policy in February 2021. Michelle oversees the development and engagement of Logistics UK policy, including on topics such as road regulation, infrastructure, trade and decarbonisation. Michelle has a background in both policy and public affairs and prior to joining Logistics UK, she was Environmental Manager at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Previously she worked for the British Retail Consortium, first leading on public affairs and then on employment and health and safety policy.

Becky Taylor, CFO, DHL Supply Chain

Becky is the first female CFO for DHL Supply Chain UK&I. She leads a Finance team of over 650, in a £3.5bn organisation, employing over 35,000 employees in the UK&I. She was part of the leadership team leading the business through Brexit and Covid and then stepped into the CFO role 3 years ago, managing through the more recent macro economic events.

Becky has spent 22 years in DHL working across multiple Divisions, Sectors and roles, primarily across Finance and Commercial roles. Her previous role was as VP Commercial where she created a dedicated Commercial team focused on supporting pricing and risk and reward decisions on new business and renewals. Prior to working for DHL she worked for EY London completing her ICEAW Chartered Accountancy qualification.

Tom Parke, Associate, Green Finance Institute

Tom leads the GFI Transport Team’s work on heavy goods vehicles. Specifically, he has led the development of the ‘Delivering Net Zero’ report which identifies10 innovative financing solutions to help operators overcome barriers to decarbonisation and accelerate private investment into zero emission HGVs and infrastructure, as well as a guide for investors in the EV Battery Supply Chain. He joined the Institute from the Growth Lending Group, a provider of working capital and venture debt to high growth businesses, where he managed a portfolio of clients and worked across different teams to structure and restructure ABL facilities.

Nick Fothergill, Partner, Weightmans

Nick Fothergill is a Corporate Partner based in the firm’s London office.

Nick has extensive experience advising clients in the Energy & Utilities sector, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), investment work, joint ventures, corporate reorganisations and restructurings, commercial contracts, private equity/infrastructure transactions, and general company law and advisory matters.

Energy projects and transactions that Nick has advised on include onshore wind, offshore wind, solar, waste-to-energy, biomass, offshore transmission (OFTO), PPAs and offtake arrangements and energy services.

Stuart Higgins, Partner, Bearing Point

Stuart is an equity partner with BearingPoint, the largest independent management consultancy business in Europe

Stuart leads the UK Consumer Goods and Retail sector, where he combines deep industry knowledge and expertise (borne out of an operational career spanning 30 years working for major consumer goods and retail businesses) with thought leadership to deliver technology solutions and consulting services that create sustainable value for our clients.

One recent focus for Stuart has been on establishing BearingPoint’s Sustainability Practise in the UK, with a focus on business transformation to help our clients to lead the way in climate, carbon footprint, the circular economy, sustainable value chains and social impact.

Fireside chat - Alternative fuels as key to sustainable freight

Professor Philip Greening, Centre for Sustainable Road Freight

Prof. Greening is the co-Lead of TransiT https://transit.ac.uk/ - a UK research hub scoping potential digital capabilities including digital twinning to manage the reduction of carbon emissions from transport, and  co-investigator at https://dare.ac.uk/ - the National Hub for Decarbonised, Adaptable, and Resilient Transport Infrastructures that brings together leading UK universities, and diverse industry, government, and civic partners to find viable pathways and solutions for a transition to a resilient, net zero transport system that works for all. 
At Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh Business School he is Director of the Centre for Logistics and Sustainability which embraces the international collaboratives  Centre for Sustainable Road Freight and Centre for Sustainable Cooling. 

He leads a Heriot-Watt team with unique capability in the use of agent-based modelling for strategic investment planning of infrastructure and resilient systems.

His work has spanned many research approaches (including corporate case studies, roadmap development, traditional logistics modelling), and currently leads the development of large-scale high fidelity, self-organising models, including digital twins, or virtual worlds, which facilitate the exploration of disruptive innovation impact.

James Spencer, Founder and Managing Director, Portland Group

James Spencer is the founder, majority shareholder and Managing Director of Portland, having established the company in 2009. The business started as a specialised hedging provider (The Fuel Trading Company Ltd), offering budgetary certainty to companies with an exposure to movements in the price of fuel. Portland’s service offering increased throughout the following decade under James’ leadership with the incorporation of three more companies – Portland Analytics (the provider of Logistics UK’s Fuel Price Information Service), Portland CSO and Portland Fuel. The combined Portland group now covers a wide range of fuel-related services, including expert advisory and pricing services, unique fixed price fuel cards and fuel deliveries, fuel hedging, a renewable fuels desk, AdBlue® supply and carbon reduction. It trades in the UK, Europe and North America.

Prior to starting Portland, James was the Group Operations Director for the UK’s Bayford Group for over 5 years, looking after their £500m p.a. operational portfolio including 100 tankers and 200 petrol stations. During this period he was also the Chairman of the UK’s Oil Trade Association, looking after the interests of Traders, Importers, Wholesalers and Distributors. He had previously built a career with Mobil and BP for 10 years, with his final role being Executive Assistant to the Global Group Vice President. Before that, he held a variety of senior managerial positions in planning, supply, logistics, trading and refining, where amongst many outstanding achievements he developed BP’s first ever carbon reduction programme. James graduated from Cambridge University in 1994.

James has significant fuels expertise, counting almost 30 years of industry knowledge and experience. He is a regular contributor to fuel related debates and has appeared numerous times on the BBC and other media outlets.

Panel session - Cyber security

Sasha Henry, Senior Managing Consultant, CyXcel

Sasha has worked as a consultant for a diverse set of professional services firms including insurance, information technology, internal audit and legal. Starting her career on an engagement with the Atlantic Council and members of NATO, she supported a programme called the Cyber Statecraft Initiative by developing a wargaming exercise for government stakeholders in the Nordics. Following the conclusion of her Master's Degree in Global Security, Transnational Organised Crime and Post-Soviet Studies, she worked at Aon in cyber risk management, leading financial modelling exercises, facilitating IT as well as OT control assessments and developing business continuity service offerings which focused on the impacts of digital transformation on critical operations.

At Accenture, her role grew into a business and service development function, where she worked with executive leadership in building bespoke solutions for diamond accounts across the resources, health, and public services. In addition to advising clients across a wide range of industries, she has supported colleagues with bid management, project resourcing, service delivery, pre-sales activities and partnership development. With vast experience in guiding organisations through complex challenges, she has been recognised for providing strategic insights and actionable recommendations that enhance the cybersecurity and resilience posture of clients.